


Meant To Be Together

by StarSparkle2403



Series: Fated Family [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Happy Ending, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Light Angst, M/M, Matchmaker Clint, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-10 09:31:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14734418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarSparkle2403/pseuds/StarSparkle2403
Summary: “You know what this means, don’t you?”Steve nodded. “My best friend in the world will have the same mark!”Sarah smiled warmly. “That’s right. And what will the next one be?”“That one will be for my family!” Steve said excitedly. “And the last one will be for my soulmate!”





	Meant To Be Together

“Mama! I got my first mark!” Steve ran up to his mother excitedly, nearly out of breath. The tiny six year old was vibrating with excitement. “Look!”

Sure enough, when Sarah looked down at her son’s arm there was a splash of color engulfing it. “That’s wonderful!” Sarah said, kneeling down in front of her son. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

Steve nodded. “My best friend in the world will have the same mark!”

Sarah smiled warmly. “That’s right. And what will the next one be?”

“That one will be for my family!” Steve said excitedly. “And the last one will be for my soulmate!”

“That’s right,” Sarah said again with a smile on her face. It was a bit sad to see her son growing up so fast, but she knew it was for the best. She wouldn’t always be there to look after him and with that fighting spirit of his, he would need some looking after.

\----------

The first time Sarah met James Barnes was a bit of a shock.

The door to their apartment burst open, and there stood a tall, handsome boy who was carrying Steve in his arms. And they were both covered in blood.

“What happened?” Sarah asked, rushing over. She guided the boy over to the kitchen table and had him set Steve down there.

“I’m fine Ma, really,” Steve mumbled, but Sarah shushed him and looked at the other boy expectantly.

The boy stared steadily back, blue-gray eyes piercing. “A couple guys were beating him up in an alley when I was walking home from school. I ran them off before getting him here,” the boy said.

“Well, thank you from getting him home,” Sarah said, before pointing to a drawer. “Get a rag out of there and wet it. I need to be able to see the wounds and all this blood isn’t helping.”

The boy did what she said and handed her the rag. While she began cleaning up her son, she told the boy, “You get cleaned up and take those clothes off. We can’t have you going home looking like that. You’ll give your mother a heart attack.”

The boy turned to do what she said, but Sarah called out, “I don’t think you told me your name.”

“It’s James, ma’am. James Barnes.”

\----------

The thing about James was that he somehow had a sixth sense for when Steve was being attacked. He showed up every time after that, and somehow he and Steve became friends. He even taught Steve how to defend himself better.

During one of these training sessions, Steve’s asthma began to flare up, so James brought him home. Usually James left before any of Steve’s clothes were taken off (as it was easier for Steve to be cleaned up and for him to breathe if clothes weren’t in the way) but this time, he stayed. This also meant that he got a glimpse of Steve’s friend and family tattoos.

“You have them too?” James asked from across the room. Steve looked at him questioningly. “Your tattoos,” James continued, coming closer to look at them.

Over the years, the splash of colors (Steve had deemed it to be paint) had migrated from Steve’s arm, up to his shoulder. When he turned ten, his family tattoo had appeared, and Steve had been just as excited as the last time. The small circle bounced around on his ribs, and the image on it changed every few minutes.

“I have both of those,” James breathed. He unbuttoned, then pulled off his shirt, turning around as he did so. The multicolored paint was spread across his shoulder blades and dripped down his back. The small circle was bouncing around it, flashing a different image each second, as if it were excited.

“That one’s new,” Steve said, pointing to the circle as it changed into a white star with red, white, and blue surrounding it. 

“I don’t have that one,” James replied, pointing to Steve’s circle when it changed into a red star surrounded by silver.

“The white star is probably Steve, and the red star is James,” Sarah put in. “Each symbol must correspond to a person.”

Steve and James locked eyes before beginning to count how many symbols there were. 

“Okay, so there’s a gold thing that looks like a mask, a red hourglass, a purple bullseye with an arrow in it, a hammer, a green radiation symbol, and a pair of red and black wings,” James said. “Counting our two, that makes eight people.”

Steve’s eyes were sparkling. “I’ve never had a big family before.”

\----------

Sarah didn’t live long enough to see her son’s soulmate tattoo.

On her deathbed, she told Steve, “Treat them right. Take care of them, and whatever you do, always make sure they know they’re loved.”

Steve promised her that he would, and held her hand as she passed away.

\----------

Steve’s soulmate tattoo never moved. He thought something was wrong with it until James told him that his never moved either.

“Is there something wrong with us, Buck?” Steve asked one night as they laid in bed in their shared apartment. “I would say that maybe our soulmates don’t want us, but I don’t think anyone wouldn’t want you. Me on the other hand…”

James snorted. “Shut up, you little punk. Anyone would be lucky to have you, and I’m sure that our tattoos don’t move because our soulmates are just too far away.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Steve replied.

\----------

To James, the only good side to getting drafted was that maybe his tattoo would start to move. That dream got crushed pretty quickly.

All he got was wet socks, a case of homesickness, and, oh yeah, _getting captured._

\----------

Steve was thrilled when he got a chance to help his country win the war. He was even more thrilled when the serum actually worked. He was less than thrilled when he learned that he was going to be stuck in a lab and not out into the field.

That may have been the case, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to leave his best friend in enemy hands.

Maybe raiding the HYDRA compound by himself was risky, but it got the job done.

Of course, James gave him hell for that.

\----------

“By yourself!?!?! How did you think that was a good idea? Do you want to get killed?”

“I’m sorry, Bucky, but I just couldn’t leave you there!”

“Stop giving me that look. It doesn’t work on me.”

… 

“Okay fine. I forgive you.”

\----------

It turns out that the Howling Commandos shared a family tattoo. Well, all of them except Steve and Bucky did.

“You guys are part of the family whether or not the tattoos say you are,” Dum Dum told them one night. “The others agree with me.”

Steve and Bucky couldn’t have been more grateful. Not knowing who their family was stung, and their unmoving soulmate tattoos just made it hurt more. Maybe, just maybe, they could hold onto this until they found their fated family.

\----------

That sense of family didn’t last long.

Bucky fell, then Steve broke.

Crashing that plane wasn’t only about saving lives.

It soothed a bit of the pain in Steve’s chest as well.

\----------

Howard Stark couldn’t care less about his son’s tattoos. He was too busy looking for Steve.

Tony never told his father that he was pretty sure that his family tattoo proved that Captain America was still alive.

Or that he was 99.9% sure that the American hero was his soulmate.

That didn’t stop it from hurting though.

His soulmate was presumed dead. Had been since long before Tony was born. And even if Steve Rogers was still alive, why would he want Tony? He was just a spoiled brat that drank too much and only had one friend.

He wasn’t good enough for his father, so how was he good enough for the symbol of America’s values?

\----------

Howard dying was almost a relief. Of course, now Tony had a company to run, but with Obie by his side and Rhodey waiting to swoop in and pick him back up if he fell, what could go wrong?

\----------

Everything. Everything could go wrong.

Everything being the hunk of metal in Tony’s chest, Obie’s betrayal, palladium poisoning, getting stabbed in the neck by his PA who turned out to be a spy for that pirate guy, said pirate guy recruiting him to be in his super secret boy band, finding out that Captain America was indeed alive, finding out that Cap definitely hated him, a god using his tower to unleash aliens on New York, and nearly dying by suffocation due to the wormhole.

Yep. A lot went wrong.

\----------

The future was a lot of things. Confusing, loud, and flashy were some words Steve would use. Of course, those words also described someone that seemed to get under Steve’s skin every time he opened that mouth of his.

It also didn’t help that the man was absolutely gorgeous and that Steve just wanted to kiss him to shut him up.

\----------

Clint’s favorite place to hang out was in the vents. The walls hugging close to his body helped him relax when his mind wandered back to Loki.

He also saw a lot from his vantage point.

Some of those things were the team’s tattoos. 

They had figured out pretty quickly that their family tattoos matched. Tony had quickly established movie nights to “get Capsicle caught up,” but everyone knew that they were meant to be for team bonding.

The more interesting tattoos were Steve and Tony’s soulmate tattoos.

They matched. Completely and utterly.

Clint could tell that Tony had already guessed that Steve was his soulmate, but he also knew that Tony wouldn’t do anything about it. That man had serious self esteem issues. Clint never could stand it when his parents fought, and he was going to make sure it wouldn’t happen in this family, so he decided to intervene.

A couple non-lethal acid arrows should work nicely.

\----------

He lined up the shot and… there. Bullseye.

Steve shirt was quickly eaten up by the acid, leaving his chest on full display. The red, white, and blue star on his side danced back and forth, straining to get closer to Tony.

One more arrow should do the trick.

Tony’s shirt was eaten up just as quickly, the matching star on his abdomen dancing in circles.

 _“My work here is done,”_ Clint thought, creeping back to his floor through the vents.


End file.
